We read the first MAGA romance novel and it's worse than expected

Marketed as a "MAGA hat romance novel" Ladies First is a 79-page masterpiece about a green-haired liberal woman falling for a hulk-like conservative man and realizing everything she believes is a lie. And we read it, so you don't have to.

When former President Donald Trump decided to campaign on 'Make America Great Again', he unknowingly erected an entire subculture of red-hat-wearing people looking to promote intense conservative values through any medium possible. And despite Trump no longer being in office, it hasn't stopped people from creating more MAGA content.

That includes Liberty Adams, the pseudonym of the author who wrote the MAGA hat romance series. (That's right Ladies First is just the first installment in a series of novels exploiting the conservative American lifestyle.)

Adams' biography says she lives west of the Rockies, is a mom, wife, and community volunteer who "proudly owns and wears several assorted MAGA hats of her own."

In true MAGA fashion, Ladies First explores the side of Trump supporters claim the media doesn't see.

It begins with green-haired, liberal Ricki.

Our black-lipstick-wearing main character decides to attend a Trump rally out of spite in order to write a hit piece for her blog.

The most important thing about Ricki is that she hates men because, "As a feminist about to graduate with a master's degree in gender studies, dating was a mark of shame." In fact, when our main love interest, Mike, is introduced, despite her obvious attraction to him, Ricki is disgusted by his chivalrous ways.

We never find out details about Ricki's studies or how she wants to incorporate that education into her future career. Instead, Adams makes Ricki's sole purpose trying to get into the most exclusive feminist club on campus and also getting a tattoo.

The feminist club is cut-throat by the way. Not only does Ricki have to prove she hates men and conservatives in order to get in but halfway through the book, a young woman is publicly shamed and banished from the club for having a father who works for the police department.

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Then there's the calm and collected Trump rally

Ricki attends the rally, where all of her preconceived notions about Trump supporters melt away with a few interactions.

"Uncertain of where to go, and a bit disappointed that she hadn't spotted any overt racism, she was shocked when she turned a corner and nearly collided with a group of college-aged youth, several of them persons of color. Just as shocking were the whites in the midst. At least two of the group wore red MAGA hats. They all carried rally signs. It shattered her expectations. She'd ignored the sprinkle of Hispanics, Asians, and Blacks in the crowd,"

"Ricki decided to count the number of times the president used the name God in his speech. Even with the warm-up speakers - politicians, campaign personnel, and other public figures- God was freely invoked... Ricki could not recall anyone on her side using God as Supreme Being, guiding force, or higher power, although she had heard the name taken in vain."

But the most confusing part of the Trump rally is when Ricki tries to buy an assault rifle from a man at a gun membership booth in which the man selling gun memberships says he does not know what an assault rifle is.

"'I'd like to buy an assault rifle.' The man's eyes narrowed. 'What's an assault rifle?' he said. He wasn't smiling. Ricki did not know what to say. Was he joking? 'Well' she began, 'you know, an assault rifle," he stared at her like she was crazy. 'No,' he said, 'I don't know.'"

Introducing the hunky and conservative Mike.

The crux of the story occurs after the Trump rally when Ricki formally meets the new love of her life- Mike who saves Ricki after she is jumped by a group of "anti-fascists" which Mike says are people paid to look like Trump supporters to beat Ricki up.

The rest of the story moves extremely quickly and lacks detail. Essentially Ricki decides to write the hit piece and lies that Mike pushed into the group of 'anti-fascists' to beat her. The alarming news causes liberal organizations to violently protest outside of Mike's workplace.

Ricki's actions do get her accepted to the feminist group, alongside her liberal roommate, Karen, but then Mike goes to Ricki's conservative parents about her article which they scold her for.

Then Ricki feels badly for ruining Mike's life so she writes another article about Mike and how well the Trump rally went, the feminist group kicks her out, she realizes how quickly the left turned on her, and decides to fall in love with Mike and become a conservative.

She begins her conservative journey by letting Mike convince her not to get the tattoo she's always wanted because "women shouldn't have tattoos" since "it's disrespectful to the perfect body that God gave you."

Speaking of Mike, sometimes the book switches to his stream of consciousness, and the way Adams describes his attraction to Ricki, presumably a 20-something-year-old woman, is very bizarre.

"For such a small body she had a strong build. She had straight shoulders with a tiny waist cinched in with a narrow belt, her shirt tucked into a snug pair of jeans. her breasts were firm and well-shaped"

Words like "small" and "pint-sized" are used often. At one point he compliments her saying, "'You look like an orphan. It's cute."

Overall the book is extremely strange and tries to reverse the stigma around conservatives in a not-so-subtle way.

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